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Benghazi Ball

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Mike Lumish
Mike Lumish is a PhD in American history from the Pennsylvania State University and has taught at PSU, San Francisco
… [More]State University, and the City College of San Francisco. He regularly publishes on the Arab-Israel conflict at the Times of Israel and at his own blog, Israel Thrives (http://israel-thrives.blogspot.com/). He has in recent years given conference papers on American cultural and intellectual history at The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences in Dublin, Ireland, as well as at the Western Historical Association in Phoenix, Arizona and the American Cultural Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lumish is also the founding editor of the scholarly on-line discussion forum H-1960s. He can be contacted at mike.lumish@gmail.com. [Less]

I suppose it is hardly surprising that the politicians are turning the Benghazi scandal and cover-up into a political football.

The Obama administration screwed up and then lied about it to the American public. They even lied about the lying of it when White House spokesman, Jay Carney, told us that the administration only made cosmetic changes to the CIA talking points. The CIA talking points highlighted the fact that the attack was a planned terrorist attack, not the result of some enraged, spontaneous mob all upset about some video that no one had ever heard of before.

We were lied to by this administration and that is a fact. They tried to sell us on the idea that it was the internet video that was the source of the attack, but that is false. The source of the attack was political Islam. The source of the attack was Ansar al Sharia, an al-Qaeda affiliated organization. The reason that the Obama administration lied to the American public about this is because Obama had previously lied to the American public about the defeat of Qaeda. We were led to believe that Qaeda was basically finished and, thus, political Islam was not much of a problem.

The Obama administration trotted out that video in order to deflect from the truth. The truth, of course, is that political Islam is a rising movement throughout the Muslim Middle East and a movement that Barack Obama has done much to support. The Obama administration lied to the American people because they wanted to maintain the illusion that they had defeated Qaeda, and thus radical Islam, when they had done no such thing.

But an election was coming up, so scruples be damned.

And now the Washington Post is reporting that Democratic California Senator, Barbara Boxer, claims that the reason that the Obama administration failed to protect Ambassador Stevens and his staff is because the Republicans are stingy with the cash necessary to maintain security in foreign diplomatic facilities.

Glenn Kessler, who ferreted out the WAPO article, goes into some detail about just how such a claim is bogus, but I find it disgraceful that Democratic Party operatives would seek to deflect Obama administration negligence and malfeasance onto their political rivals. I am not a Republican, but I am pretty unhappy with the Obama administration and the Benghazi scandal and cover-up is just the icing on the cake.

As of this moment the Benghazi scandal centers around four ugly facts.

1) The Obama administration refused to bolster security at the Benghazi facility despite requests to do so by Ambassador Stevens who was subsequently murdered by Jihadis.

2) The Obama administration failed to come to the aid of Ambassador Stevens and his staff despite the fact that they had all night to do so. This was not an attack that took half an hour or one hour or three. It went on throughout the night and yet the US military was told (by someone) to stand down.

3) The Obama administration then lied to the American people about the source of the attack, claiming that it was due to some internet video concerning the life of Muhammed, and did so for political and electoral reasons. Obama had told Americans that Qaeda was, if not defeated, on the run, and he knew that if the administration admitted that this was a terrorist attack by a Qaeda affiliate, the lie would have been exposed and that would have harmed his bid for reelection.

4) The Obama administration then lied about lying through White House spokesmen, Jay Carney, who insisted that the White House did not force any substantive changes to the CIA talking points which originally sourced the attack to Islamists.

This is what the Obama administration will need to answer for.

The Democrats can try to kick the ball down field into Republican territory, but Barack Obama owns this scandal.

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